Technical Field
This invention relates generally to a nut for use with a vehicle shock absorber and more particularly to a multi-piece nut for use with a shock.
State of the Art
The use of shocks is common place for vehicles and provides significant advantages. These advantages include reducing the road impact transmitted from the wheels to the chassis and, therefore, to the occupants of the vehicle when it travels over bumps. Further, depending on the size of the bump, without suspension the tires could lose contact with the road therefore losing traction, which, it would also be uncomfortable. Additionally, the chassis would be subjected to damaging shock loads, and directional/steering control could be lost.
A common type of shock absorber currently in use is a coil spring over shock, typically referred to, a “coilover,” as shown in FIG. 1. A coilover 10 consists of a shock absorber 12 with a coil first spring 14 encircling it. Some coilovers 10 allow adjustment of first spring 14 response rates by use of a nut 16. Stiffness can be changed by switching first spring 14 for one with a different response rate. However, switching first spring 14 or repairing a damaged coilover 10 requires considerable labor to disassemble shock 10 from the vehicle to make such changes. The main reason is that to remove first spring 14, spring nut 16 must be removed by unthreading it from shock absorber 12.
Accordingly, there is a need in the field of coil spring over shocks for an improved spring nut.